I will add pics later, but progress is being made! (famous last words) E30 has the linkage modified, rack installed, pump rebuilt, and is waiting on one section of 14mm ID power steering hose to get fully bolted together. Gotta bend the high pressure line to fit it as well, hoping I can get it right the first time without kinking. After that, it gets bolted together and test driven. Fingers crossed. I also decided to put a new ATE clutch slave in with the new line since a) it already has to come out, b) the brand i bought apparently has a habit of stranding folks within a few thousand miles, c) ATE is the OEM manufacturer, and d) mine went to the floor once last year randomly and never did it again. I'll throw the old one in a ziploc in the trunk just in case though. For the line, I went to Pegasus and bought a premade -4an braided stainless brake/clutch hose. I got the 21" version with one end straight and one end at 90 degrees. I also grabbed a spare 24" hose section in case the 21" isn't long enough (I measured with a piece of baling wire, it was a ROUGH estimate) and a s a spare. Total cost for both hoses and the two brake fittings needed to go from AN to M10 bubble flare was less than the Chasebays premade part. We'll see how it is to install but it seems to be a good alternative if you want to ditch the stock multi-piece clutch hydraulic setup and spend closer to $40. I also took the time to solder and marine heatshrink the C191 connector wires. When the engine someday comes back out of the car, I will properly install a waterproof connector but for now it's permanent and i trust those more than butt splices on those itty bitty wires. I can't foresee a situation where I'd need the intake off without the head also coming off, at which point the engine is getting yanked anyways. Snagged some headlights from @The Full Banana earlier this year, and found that the lenses were already cut off of them. Going to heat and pry the busted lens out of my low beam and silicone the freshie in for now, and source a low beam U.S. ellipsoid housing/lens (driver's side, if anyone has one) to put in the other set and restore this summer when I have more time. Getting closer! Can't wait to get some shakedown miles in, the deadline for the vintage is creeping up fast.

Been slacking on driving and working on this. I've tossed around the idea of selling but don't think I can do it - it's too competent for the money, I have no idea what I would get to replace it short of a E9X M3, and i neither want to spend the money on that nor need another summer only car. Anywho, some maintenance!  149,000ish/January 2026 - new front struts, along with every associated wear item (bump stops, strut mounts, washers, dust boots, hardware) in the strut assembly. New top hats too cause they're cheap. Not sure if i put it in the last post, but I threw in some new Meyle HD front sway links last year too, so all the front suspension is brand new save the springs themselves and the tie rods, which feel fine. 150,074/This week: Oil change, LM Special Tech 5W-30 and a Mann filter. SO easy to do on these cars, I wish my F250 had a filter insert. So much less mess. I held off on driving this car this winter until late January to keep salt off (I needed to take it to get an emissions test to renew the registration), and I think in addition to some strategic fluid film this summer, I will likely park it next winter fully unless the truck breaks. Not worth smashing the front bumper on an ice chunk or risking some yahoo sliding through an intersection into it, plus salt=gross.

I had some timing cover leaks that I had to fix.  [image: ] Brakes are done. I used stainless hard lines which do not seal as well at the fittings as NiCopp lines. I had couple small leaks. A bit more torque at the fittings fixed the issue.  Clutch hydraulic lines are done and it looks like clutch works ok. I put driveshaft, diff and axles in. Tightened whole front suspension minus tie rods.  I still need to shorten stock e36 tie rods for this setup to work. I have a z4 manual rack that I will put in I just need to figure out the splines. I hope they are the same as e36 rack so I could reuse my Woodward u-joints.   Valve cover lost its beautiful blue color for the more modest wrinkle black [image: ] The stupid intake manifold flange was warped. And my shitty welds were full of pinholes. No wonders that I could not set the idle below 1.2k rpm.  [image: ][image: ]  2 hours later and the flange started too look flat again   [image: ] I spent whole evening chasing pinholes. I think I got them all. I welded new downpipe and rest of the exhaust. Its a 3" going into borla XR-1 muffler to Vibrant super quiet resonator and side exits on the driver side.  I still need to weld a beauty ring for the side exit. I got a 4" stainless  pipe for this.  [image: ][image: ] [image: ]

pynacl said: Also bought an N54 intake manifold and plan to retrofit that when the garage is warm enough (too poor for a heater). Choosing this route over the 330 “3 stage” intake swap to avoid dealing with pesky DISA valves - the power gains are pretty similar: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1902505 I understand modifying an N52 is relatively pointless, but I’m doing it for the sheer sport of it. Isnt that why we are all doing BMW things?

I finally got a windshield gasket!

Glad to see it back on the road

Looks fantastic! We gotta get the cars out sometime together this summer, it’ll probably motivate me to buy new wheels to keep up

Cyrus said: Hey bro, I have your old alpine/modena e36 shoot me a message on instagram @cyrusfara would be cool to meet up Hey! That's great to hear that this car is still local and being enjoyed! Id love to check it out sometime!

I jumped on a set of ZCP wheels over the weekend since they're NLA and don't pop up too often for sale [image: IMG\_1298.jpg]

Carbon lip, there may be Black Friday sales (Adro has my front lip for $616, I might get it as a spare)

Nothing better than a good wash [image: IMG\_1570.jpeg]

99,105 miles After replacing most of the front suspension I took the X5 into EuroTech in Minneapolis for an alignment. They charged $223 which felt pretty high considering these don't have camber adjustment. Anyways, while there they diagnosed an oil leak from the oil filter housing. I knew this thing seeped, but honestly just didn't care much until I read how these N55s like to suck serp belts through the crank seal if they get oily. Out of curiosity I asked them the rough estimate to have that gasket replaced - $1800! I was feeling lazy, but not for that price. I was able to knock it out in roughly an afternoon and it wasn't too bad at all. The only tricky part is BMW designed it so that you cannot reach the 3rd bolt holding the housing to the block without removing the intake manifold. Other than that the trickiest part was just managing the fluids and trying not to spill - once again those giant 500ml Amazon syringes came in clutch to suck most the coolant out of the reservoir before starting. Also de-greased the hell out of the front of the engine while I was in there, but didn't take any great photos. While in there I replaced: - Oil filter housing gasket - Oil cooler gasket - Oil pressure sensor - Accessory drive belt - Belt idler pulley - Belt tensioner - All mounting hardware [image: IMG\_8764.JPG] [image: IMG\_8788.JPG][image: IMG\_8763.JPG][image: IMG\_8787.JPG][image: IMG\_8776.JPG][image: IMG\_8796.JPG][image: IMG\_8801.JPG]

YoungCR said: Welcome back stranger, what’s in the garage these days? E30 is still there but looking to get sold before winter.  We moved about 2 years ago into a new bigger place but with kids getting older (10 and 13 now) priorities have shifted.  If anyone’s interested LMK, I’ll get a FS post up sometime soon!

How many miles on the motor?

Did a track day at Blackhawk last year.  Could only keep it in 4th gear to keep the RPMs down so oil wouldn't blow out of my catch cans. Still clipped 120mph on the straight and had a blast! On newly mounted R888s all around.  Also, amassing parts! 🫣 Car is running great outside of a power steering leak. Removed the ABS pump.

Been a bit since I updated this.  The first Partee Racing motor snapped the crank and he built me a new motor of the same exact spec without hesitation.  Currently working some tuning issues out as we switched tuners.

that's good news, congrats!

Jdesign said: What are the dimensions of that AC unit? it looks really smol. 15x13x17 ish maybe. It's the smallest one you can get at Menards.

So far so good I had not religiously used any additives except for the Liquid Moly system cleaning kit FCP sells initially but I’m now adding in Power Service every tank that I fill up or when I remember to toss some in while at home.